Tech Tent

Bruce Daisley, a former European vice president of Twitter, talks to Tech Life. We report on scammers using artificial intelligence, bots and books to cash-in. An international firm is measuring clicks and keyboard strokes to make work more productive. And the boss of the global software giant Adobe makes the positive case for artificial intelligence. PHOTO CREDIT: Gonzalo Fuentes, Reuters.

Scientist, best-selling author and entrepreneur, Gary Marcus talks to Tech Life about the forthcoming global summit looking at AI for good, and the need for regulation. We examine the Wagner Group's use of social media in Africa. How do you encourage teenage girls to take up tech and engineering jobs ? And prize-winning school pupils on making driving cars safer. (PHOTO CREDIT: BBC. Shiona McCallum meets Gary Marcus on the banks of the Thames, in London,)

Technology consultant Ann Charles on the future of podcasting after Spotify ditches some of its highest profile - and highest paid - broadcasters. Tom Nunlist, senior analyst at Trivium China, on how the authorities in Beijing are trying to regulate AI. And Alasdair Keane reports from Berlin's Green Tech Festival.

This week Zoe Kleinman travels to Strasbourg, France to meet Margrethe Vestager, the woman leading the EU's attempts to regulate AI. Reporter Tom Gerken has been following the protest has caused Reddit to effectively fall silent. Chris Vallance meets the team trying out 3D printing as a way to rebuild schools destroyed in the war in the Ukraine. And Amazon tell us what they're doing to combat fake online reviews - and we ask a consumer group to review their initiative. (PHOTO: Margrethe Vestager and Zoe Kleinman at the European parliament, Strasbourg, France, copyright BBC).

Tech Life goes to Apple Park at Cupertino, California, for the launch of the Vision Pro Mixed Reality headset. Zoe speaks to analyst Leo Leo Gebbie, app developer Emma Partlow, and north America technology reporter James Clayton, and asks is this a breakthrough moment for virtual reality? Will the headset's price put people off? Has Apple finally had another Iphone moment or, under boss Tim Cook, has it lost the ability to make products that change the world? (PHOTO CREDIT: By Loren Elliott Credit: Reuters Location: Cupertino, Ca, United States)

Film-maker Justine Bateman on why she and her Hollywood colleagues fear AI will take their jobs. Drug safety campaigner Dominic Milton Trott on why he's taken his message to the darknet. And Shiona McCallum talks to the Romanian-American computer scientist Ion Stoica about AI, gender equality and what it's like being a billionaire

Tech Life explores the chips found in everyday tech, and why governments are competing to make them. We hear how scientists in New Zealand are turning underground broadband cables into a source of earthquake detection. Also in this programme how simulation tech is helping a South African HIV organisation reach more people and how AI could transform your next work out. (Photo: Jim Wilson/Getty An employee holds a silicon wafer with chips etched into it)

The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, tells us Elon Musk’s Twitter is making it harder for the internet to be open and free. Plus Shiona McCallum profiles Linda Yaccarino, the platform’s new CEO, with insight from Claire Atkinson, of Insider, whose known her for 20 years. Also: Sam Murunga, from BBC Monitoring, in Nairobi, on why TikTok is in trouble in Senegal. And Ben Derico reports on why voice actors are worried about the threat to their profession from AI. (Photo: Supporters of Turkish President check their phone to look at early presidential election results in front of the Justice and development Party (AKP's) headquarters, 14 May, 2023. Credit: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

The inventor of the first Apple computer Steve "Woz" Wozniak tells us of his fears that AI will supercharge scams. BBC education correspondent Hazel Shearing reports on whether chatbots could help you pass your exams. Bhaskar Chakravorti Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, says chatGPT "mania" is distracting from all the other useful things AI could do. And tech reporter Alasdair Keane is in Liverpool, for Eurovision, for a tour of the tech powering an international song contest. (Photo Credit: Co-founder of Apple Steve Wozniak attends the Digital X 2022 event by Deutsche Telekom on September 13, 2022 in Cologne, Germany. Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images).

With the first Web Summit taking place in Brazil, Tech Life explores digital transformation in South America and India. We speak to some of those on the cusp of digital change and to the CEO of Salesforce India, Arundhati Bhattacharya. Also in this episode, would you confess your biggest secrets to the internet? We find out why lots of people are through the social account Fesshole and Alasdair Keane explores some of the tech being trialled at the coronation of King Charles. (Photo: A marching band during the opening night of Web Summit Rio 2023. Credit: Stephen McCarthy/Getty Images)

This week, an update on the legal battle between Meta and former Facebook moderators in Kenya. One of them, Trevin Brownee, tells our reporter Chris Vallance that reviewing the most extreme content on the internet cost him his "human side." We ask what's the human cost of keeping the internet safe, and what do we owe those who do that work for us? Also this week, the weird and wonderful sounds of quantum computers in action. Professor Winfried Hensinger, who heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group and is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, explains how they could change the world. And Professor Stephen Brewster, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, and his colleague Ammar Al-Taie, on the difficulties of getting driverless cars to understand the complex and subtle interactions between cyclists and drivers. (PHOTO CREDIT: Kenyan lawyer, Mercy Mutemi (seated 4th R) along with fellow counsel follow proceedings during a virtual pre-trial consultation with a jud

As Google's boss, Sunder Pichai, says he doesn't fully understand its AI products, tech investor Ian Hogarth tells us it's time for a public debate on the technology's future. Reporter Michael Kaloki joins us from Nairobi to explain how the legal battle between Facebook and its Kenyan moderators is intensifying. Alasdair Keane meets the amateur composer crafting the sound of all human knowledge for Wikipedia. And our Click colleague Lara Lewington tells us about the tech entrepreneur devoting his time - and money - to finding ways to extend healthy human life. (Picture credit: Getty Images)

Tech Life looks into the world of Kidfluencers, and asks if too much of children's lives are shared online to make money. We speak to those involved in the industry in India. We also hear how cyber is playing a role in the war in Ukraine and we speak to Bolor Erdene Battsengel about digital life in Mongolia.

Martha Lane Fox reflects on her thirty years in tech, including her front row seat in Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, how she remains one of very few high profile women in the industry, and why we need to make sure the whole world shapes the debate on AI. Chenai Chair, from the Mozilla Foundation, joins us from Zimbabwe to explain the work they're doing to make sure minority languages are included in digital services. India business correspondent Nikhil Inamdar tells us about his experience seeing an app which is helping people in poor areas claim vital welfare payments. And Spencer Kelly, from our sister programme, Click, tells us what he found out about the future of food in his trip to the markets and laboratories of Singapore. ((PHOTO: Martha Lane Fox and Shiona McCallum, in London. BBC pic))

The search giant is rolling out its challenger in the artificial intelligence arms race, competing against the Microsoft-backed Chat GPT. We take it for a spin, while also looking into the issue of internet shutdowns following a government-backed communications blackout in the state of Punjab in India. Image credit: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

With more announcements about AI chatbot GPT4, we hear how it will be further integrated into Microsoft and speak to Duolingo about how they hope it will help users learn languages. We also explore the fallout in India and South Africa from the US failure of Silicon Valley Bank and our Tech Reporter, Alasdair Keane, speaks to Alpine F1’s Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon on how tech and data is keeping pace with Formula 1 innovation. (Image: Getty/NurPhoto)

Shiona McCallum is at Meta's London HQ to chat to WhatsApp boss, Will Cathcart. We explore their response to the UK's Online Safety Bill and ask about the future of payments through the app. Also in this episode the latest with TikTok as the platform tries to reassure governments it is taking data security seriously and could the sky be full of drones? We speak to one company who think they'll be doing more deliveries soon.

We look at why some governments are worried about TikTok. We hear about pregnancy discrimination in tech and an expert tells us about the future of noise.

On Tech Tent this week we hear how the Supreme Court is hearing claims that big tech firms such as Google and Twitter should be considered the publishers of the harmful content that appears on their platforms - Dr. Mary Anne Franks, President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, tells us how it could change the way the internet works everywhere in the world. A year on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine we speak to one of the country's thousands of tech workers about how she has adapted to living and working in a time of war - and the government tells us the tech sector has kept growing, despite the destruction and loss of life. We find out about how some internet users in South Africa have had to become night owls because of the soaring cost of mobile data. And how to ride a virtual reality jetski - just by thinking about it. (PHOTO CREDIT WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 21: (L-R) Jose Hernandez and Beatriz Gonzalez, stepfather and mother of Nohemi Gonzalez, who died in a terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, loo

One employee tells the BBC the tech giant has been attempting to 'scare' staff. The firm says it continues to 'make enhancements to our industry-leading benefits as a part of the overall support we provide to our valued team members.' We'll also hear from the African Tech Summit taking place in Kenya. And we learn how a small team of visual effects artists created the look of the stunning Oscar contender - Everything, Everywhere All at Once - using laptops in their bedrooms. Image credit: Reuters/ Joshua Roberts